FFWD.L Regulatory News (FFWD)

13 Aug 2007 07:00

London Asia Chinese Private Equity13 August 2007 13 August 2007 London Asia Chinese Private Equity Fund Limited ("LACPEF" or "the Fund") Investee Company to Raise up to US$60 million LACPEF, the AIM traded, China focused investment fund, is pleased to announcethat its investee company Asia Water Technology Ltd. ("Asia Water" or "the Group") is raising up to US$60 million in new funds to finance the continuedexpansion of its water treatment business in China. Asia Water, listed on Singapore's SESDAQ stock exchange, provides comprehensiveand integrated engineering solutions for water purification and wastewatertreatment, which includes engineering, procurement and commissioning of suchsystems. The finance is via the issue of US$60 million of bonds, issued in two equaltranches of US$30 million, comprising US$ 15 million in structured bonds and US$15 million in convertible bonds. Both the convertible and structured bonds havea five-year maturity period. The Group is also issuing approximately 11.4 million warrants to bondsubscribers. When fully exercised, the warrants are expected to raise anadditional US$5.0 million for the Group. The warrants have a six year maturityperiod. Asia Water released results for the half year ended 30 June 2007 showing profitbefore tax up 7% to £1.7 million and net assets of £21 million. The bonds and warrants issue is conditional on shareholders' approval to beobtained at an extraordinary meeting and the necessary approvals from theSingapore Stock Exchange among other conditions. Mr Huang Hanguang, Asia Water's Chief Executive Officer, said: "The completionof the bonds issue will be a timely boost to our efforts to move ahead ofcompetition and gain a larger share of the fast-growing tap water and wastewatertreatment sector in the PRC. We expect more and more projects to be availablefrom this sector on a Build-Operate-Transfer/Build-Own-Operate andTransfer-Operate-Transfer basis, which requires substantial investment butpromises a stable recurring income for up to 30 years. We have alreadyidentified a few major potential projects and expect to be in a strong positionto secure these contracts with the proceeds from this fund-raising exercise." Simon Littlewood, Fund Director, said: "This is the second significant fundraising by our investee companies in the last few weeks, following the US$20million raised by China New Energy in late July. We are working with severalother of our investee companies to raise funding for them to finance theircontinued expansion." For further information please contact: John West/Andrew Dunn Cecilia Wong Hugh FieldTavistock Communications London Asia Ltd Collins Stewart Europe LtdTel: 020 7920 3150 Tel: +852 2251 8373 Tel: 020 7523 8000 cecilia.wong@londonasia.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange